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POLITICO 44

McLaughlin brings to Tumblr some key Washington experience, most notably serving as the administration's deputy chief technology officer from 2009 to 2010. Before that, he headed up global public policy work for Google from 2004 to 2009. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Sunday night.

Until now, Tumblr has largely flown under the Beltway radar. The company is taking a more active role in policy matters given recent attempts on Capitol Hill to crack down on content peddled illegally online.

Tumblr joined a collection of other Internet companies and industry groups that temporarily blacked out portions of their websites to convey dissatisfaction with a House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bipartisan proposal seeks to let authorities shutter foreign websites that permit the illegal exchange of music, movies and other digital content.

McLaughlin resigned from his White House post in December 2010, after a tenure in which he shaped the administration's work on top debates involving net neutrality, cybersecurity and online privacy, among other issues. His tenure also brought some controversy: A series of emails between McLaughlin and his former Google colleagues, sent via the staffer's personal Gmail account, landed him in hot water for appearing to violate the Obama administration's ethics policy.

After leaving the White House, McLaughlin began teaching at Stanford Law School, took a position on the board of directors for Code for America and started Civic Commons. The latter is a nonprofit that "helps governments build and use shared and open technologies to improve public services, transparency, accountability, citizen participation and management effectiveness, all while saving money," according to its website.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:42 a.m. on December 5, 2011.